The former Catalan Dragons player who plays today in Entraigues, Younès Khattabi, will be the new sports director of the French national team. The French Federation specifies that it will be mainly in charge of administrative tasks with the teams of France.

Younès Khattabi was a great rugby league player and also a fantastic beach rugby player. He is one of the member of Yakha XIII, one of the most strong beach rugby team in Europe and one of the leaders of EBRA – European Beach Rugby Association – Series in the last few season.

New methods to access the Master Final, to ensure show and quality.

European Beach Rugby Association in the sign of total renewal. After the news of the new positions and investiture in the management, a strong signal is given for the establishment of the 2019 European championship.

“Too many complaints, polemics and unnecessary accusations have come in recent times” – comments Lionel Laugier President E.B.R.A. – “But we wanted to shake off all the useless frauds and controversies, going to seek maximum satisfaction for the European clubs and improve the championship and access to the Final Master. This last point has been discussed very carefully and we are convinced that currently, it is the best sustainable offer “.

Various factors have been taken into account, including the planning of the teams to register for the events, the costs and certainty of access also to the Final Master but remaining in the seasonal spending budgets.

And so we have come up with the idea of giving the teams a year to prepare to participate not only in the European championship, but also in the Master Final for those entitled to it.

The  2019 EBRA Master Final Cup will be played in Figueira da Foz, Portugal, on 21st and 22nd July.

“We chose to anticipate a final weekend, to avoid overlapping the Beach Rugby Tournament for Nations which will be held on July 27 and 28 in Moscow for the third consecutive year”, comments Laugier.

The novelty lies in the new method of access to the Final Master. At Figueira da Foz will enter 12 men’s and 10 women’s teams. Will be the teams that won the 2018 tournaments of British Beach Rugby, North Sea Netherlands, Figueira da Foz, Barcelona, Marseille and Lignano International. The teams that have won more than one tournament, will leave the space to the second classified

There will be also some Wild Cards: the winners of the National Championships of Italy, Portugal and the Netherlands are called and the first 3 teams classified in the E.B.R.A. ranking 2018 who did not get the qualification.

In a few days all these teams will receive the communication from E.B.R.A. to obtain confirmation of participation in the 2019 Final Master.

But the teams that will play in the E.B.R.A. Series 2019, for what will they fight?

“For among others the Master Final 2020, which sees the Hague tournament in Holland in the running” Lionel Laugier replies.

Saturday 22 September in The Hague (Holland), at the General Assembly of E.B.R.A. there have been fundamental changes aimed at improving.

“It was imperative to give a serious and concrete response to all requests, including those controversies, to find new formulas that would be more balanced with the intercontinental championship”, says President of EBRA Lionel Lauguier, who has been reconfirmed for a second term. “The most important point” – continues Laugier – “was that all the proposals presented were accepted unanimously by the General Assembly. Significant sign that there was full sharing and understanding of the innovation project implemented by all the members of E.B.R.A. ”

The restructuring began with the election of new offices, which sees the Dutch Kasper Bleijenberg as new Vice President, while the Italian Giancarlo Stocco has been appointed Secretary General with responsibility for the Disciplinary, relations with RUGBY EUROPE, the 7s – beach Commission rugby – snowrugby in Rugby Europe, at Ebra Media and Marketing Communication.

Head of the referees is reconfirmed the Englishman Dave Drury, while the Italian Andrea Leone will fly to Holland to expand the excellent Dutch program to be applied to all stages of the Ebra Series, to achieve results, penalties and update classifications in real time, following him in first person.

The very important news is the new way to access to the Final Master.
The winners of the Ebra tournaments, the winners of the National Championships of Italy, Portugal and Netherlands and the Wild Cards of the Ranking of the Ebra Series of the 2018 season, will enter the 2019 Final Master.
“We tried to find the best solution to access the finals of the best European teams with a meritocratic system but also by putting the teams in a position to prepare an investment budget for the following season”, says President Laugier. “In this way the Clubs will be able to evaluate the investments, participate in the Series to gain access to the Master of the following year and, who qualified, also play the Master of the Year in progress”.

The latest news comes precisely from the Final Master. It seemed that Barcelona was in pool position for the award, but during the debate on the conditions of the award, there was the withdrawal of the candidacy by the Catalan organization and the Portuguese contest with the awarding of the final in Figueira da Foz.
“A unique opportunity not to be missed” – the commentary by Rui Louriero, the Portuguese organizer. “Bringing the best European teams to Portugal was my dream and the new championship formula ensures high-level performance. An excellent investment “.

Following the annexation of the new event in Porto (Portugal) that will be part of the Ebra Series in 2019, the candidature for a new event that will follow the process of sponsorship has been accepted. It is the tournament of Senigallia (Italy) located north of Ancona on the Adriatic Sea.

For the official dates of the Ebra Series 2019 and the names of the Clubs that will participate in the 2019 Master Final, it will be necessary to wait until the end of September.